Press Releases

For Immediate Release

On 11 December 1948, the United Nations adopted Resolution 194 which set up the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP) and “resolved that (Palestinian) refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date.”

A day earlier, 10 December, member states of the UN had adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by UNGA Res. 217A (III), marked as Human Rights Day.  UN members have now accepted the UDHR as the authoritative standard for human rights.  It calls for fundamental human rights including the right to leave any country, including one’s own, and return to one’s own country.  The Charter of the United Nations calls for self-determination. All human rights conventions flow from the aims and ideals set out in the Charter and the UDHR.

The individual right to self-determination requires States to respect all rights in human rights conventions they have signed. This includes the right of Palestinian refugees and displaced persons to return to their homes and repossess their properties.

See Bulletin 23: “The Right of Return and Self-Determination Asserted in All International Law” released today on www.badil.org

By the early 1950s the UNCCP had no resources to search for durable solutions; refugees have still not returned and been compensated for their losses and there is currently no international agency with the mandate to look for durable solutions to the Palestinian refugee problem. This is despite the fact that the UN has regularly endorsed resolutions that call for the individual or collective self-determination of Palestinian people which affirms their right to a state of their own in part of Palestine.

All of the following additional information on UNGA Resolution 194 is now easily accessible:

Occasional Bulletins

• The Meaning of UN General Assembly Resolution 194(III)

• The Right of Return and the Meaning of Refugee Choice

Information & Discussion Briefs

• The 1948 Palestinian Refugees and the Individual Right of Return: An International Law Analysis

UN Resolutions

• UNGA Resolution 194, 11 December 1948: Return, restitution, compensation

• UNGA Resolution 3236(XXIX), 22 November 1974: Inalienable rights of the Palestinian People, self-determination and return

• UNGA Resolution 36/146, 16 December 1981: Property and revenues derived therefrom

Other UN Materials

• Analysis of Paragraph 11 of the General Assembly Resolution of 11 December 1948, UNCCP, Working Paper Prepared by the UN Secretariat, U.N. Doc. A/AC.25/W.45 (Restricted) (Original: English), 15 May 1950.

• CEIRPP Report to UN Security Council, June 1976: Included a two-phase plan plan for the return of Palestinians to their homes and property; a timetable for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the occupied territories by 1 June 1977, with the provision, if necessary, of temporary peacekeeping forces to facilitate the process; an end to the establishment of settlements; recognition by Israel of the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention to the occupied territories pending withdrawal; and endorsement of the inherent right of the Palestinians to self-determination, national independence and sovereignty in Palestine.

Other Reports

• Right of Return, Joint Parliamentary Middle East Councils Commission of Enquiry - Palestinian Refugees. Labour Middle East Council, Conservative Middle East Council, Liberal Democrat Middle East Council